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Hawaii reports 5 new coronavirus-related deaths, 3,290 additional infections

CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / DEC. 27
                                With the state’s coronavirus case counts breaking records, The Queens Medical Center has put its triage tent back up outside the emergency room to separate COVID-19 cases from non-infected patients.
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CINDY ELLEN RUSSELL / DEC. 27

With the state’s coronavirus case counts breaking records, The Queens Medical Center has put its triage tent back up outside the emergency room to separate COVID-19 cases from non-infected patients.

Hawaii Department of Health officials today reported five new coronavirus-related deaths and 3,290 new confirmed and probable infections statewide, bringing the state’s totals since the start of the pandemic to 1,090 fatalities and 112,932 cases.

Four of the deaths were on Oahu and one was on Maui. No further information was released regarding the latest deaths.

The state’s official coronavirus-related death toll includes 803 fatalities on Oahu, 152 on Hawaii island, 105 on Maui, 18 on Kauai, one on Molokai, and 11 Hawaii residents who died outside the state.

The U.S. coronavirus-related death toll today is over 824,000 and the nationwide infection tally is more than 54 million.

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Today’s new confirmed and probable infection count by island includes 2,514 new cases on Oahu, 317 on Maui, 256 on Hawaii island, 127 on Kauai, 10 on Molokai, two on Lanai, and 64 Hawaii residents diagnosed outside the state.

State health officials have been including probable infections in its total case counts. Probable infections include people who never received a confirmatory test but are believed to have had the virus because of their known exposure and symptoms or because of a positive antigen test.

Today’s infection count reflects cases reported to the state on Wednesday.

Today’s total case count was the second highest on record for Hawaii, behind only Thursday’s infection tally of 3,484, as the omicron variant surge continues.

Hawaii Department of Health investigators find out the vaccination status of each positive case after the fact, which is why those statistics are not included in the daily case counts, officials have previously said.

The total number of confirmed and probable coronavirus cases by island since the start of the outbreak are 80,084 on Oahu, 13,117 on Hawaii island, 11,883 on Maui, 3,969 on Kauai, 361 on Molokai, and 162 on Lanai. There are also 3,356 Hawaii residents who were diagnosed outside of the state.

Health officials also said today that, of the state’s total infection count, 21,128 cases were considered to be active. Officials say they consider infections reported in the past 14 days to be a “proxy number for active cases.” The state’s total number of active cases increased today by 2,302.

By island, Oahu has 17,837 active cases, Maui has 1,415, the Big Island has 1,110, Kauai has 646, Molokai has 103, and Lanai has 17.

The state’s 7-day average case count is 1,955 and its 7-day positivity rate is 15.1%, according to the Hawaii COVID-19 Data dashboard. The seven-day average case count for Oahu is 1,604 and the seven-day average positivity rate is 17.4%, health officials said today.

The latest Hawaii COVID-19 vaccine summary says 2,536,610 vaccine doses have been administered through state and federal distribution programs as of today, up 6,630 from a day earlier. Health officials say that 74.2% of the state’s population is now fully vaccinated, 79.7% have received at least one dose, and 25% have received a third dose.

Of all the confirmed Hawaii infection cases, 5,273 have required hospitalizations, with 18 new hospitalizations reported today.

Thirty hospitalizations in the overall statewide count are Hawaii residents who were diagnosed and treated outside the state. Of the 5,243 hospitalizations within the state, 4,016 have been on Oahu, 642 on Maui, 462 on the Big Island, 107 on Kauai, 11 on Molokai, and five on Lanai.

A total of 152 patients with the virus were hospitalized today, of which 62 were vaccinated, according to a tweet from Lt. Gov. Josh Green.


This breaking news story will be updated as more information becomes available.


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